Monday, 15 August 2016

Amgueddfa Werin Cymru

Family came for the weekend, Gill bringing this lovely bouquet of flowers, the lilies now scenting the dining room.

On Sunday we traveled to Wales to visit the grave of my mother-in-law at her childhood home in a peaceful, green valley that was looking very beautiful on such a gentle summer's day. From there we went to look around the Museum of Welsh life where buildings from all over Wales have been rebuilt to show the history of the country. This row of cottages was built for iron workers in 1800 and the interiors have been furnished from that date, moving forwards in each dwelling up to the 1960's.

Great pains are taken to make both house and garden authentic to each period.

This is the interior of a wooden shed that has been built in one of the front gardens.

And there was a one-seater 'privvy'

complete with squares of newspaper hanging from a nail at the back of the door!

The band was playing as we looked around. What would be for sale in the Gwalia stores?

Just about any and everything, so it seems!

With storage for more stock upstairs.

Many of the firm names were familiar to me and some of them are still going strong. Other smaller shops were dotted about the museum.

And a blacksmith was hard at work in the smithy.

The information relating to specific houses was fascinating, with a map to show the original site of each building.

Here is the sturdy little pig pen and yard sited in front of the house

and a simple and attractive small flowerbed.

I like the pattern of bent sticks, an idea that I shall use.

The 'police' threatened to put me in handcuffs. (They didn't because they were unsure as to whether they would get them to open again.) Was I being arrested for not being Welsh or for filching ideas? They were re-enactors in '40's outfits. Note my sensible shoes. We did a great deal of walking but there was still far more that we did not manage to see.

The museum is large, we saw only some of it. It includes a village school which is used as an educational source for present day children. They dress in Victorian costume. Hopefully the cane, hanging by the blackboard, doesn't get used!

The Welsh hills did, indeed, look very lush and green and the weather today, a grey mist of falling rain, explains why! We have had some gloriously war, sunny days lately but we rarely go for long without a bit of rainfall.The '40's re-enactors were very pleasant and informative. As a child of the forties we had plenty to talk about!

Yes, I've often slept under the roof of a thatched house, it was my aunt and uncle's home in rural Scotland, a decorative gatehouse at one of the entrances to a large country estate. It had a sad ending when a bird's nest caught fire in one of the chimney stacks and the whole house burnt down in the middle of the night. I visited the spot and blogged about it several years ago. A place full of wonderful memories!

About Me

I live with Himself (husband) in a former gamekeeper's cottage in the South-West of England.
All text and photographs on this blog are
copyright and property of Rosemary Murphy unless otherwise stated.
I have three blogs;
Share my garden,
My life in one hundred objects and
Miss Cellany.
The 'Himself' blog consists of short stories and artwork, copyright of Peter Murphy.